MUMBAI, INDIA, July 25, 2012 (ABC News): Oprah Winfrey is facing a barrage of criticism from disappointed Indian viewers who say she resorted to “stereotypes and cliches” in the episode of her show “Oprah’s Next Chapter” dealing with her visit to the subcontinent. “Watching the Oprah in India thing on TLC and getting more and more irritated by the minute,” one viewer in India tweeted. Aseem Chhabra, a freelance journalist and columnist for the Mumbai Mirror, told ABC News he expected a lot more from somebody like Oprah Winfrey. Chhabra was not alone in his skepticism, however. “Myopic, unaware, ignorant and gauche. This was Middle America at its best worst,” according to a review of the show on Firstpost.com, an online news site based in Mumbai. Indian viewers were perhaps most outraged by a scene in which Winfrey tells an Indian family during dinner, “I heard some Indian people eat with their hands still.” After being advised to eat with only her right hand, she uses both. Another polarizing scene is when Winfrey visits the Hedges, a family of five living in a 10-by-10-foot room in a slum in Mumbai. “When I stepped in the door I was thinking, ‘OK, where is the house? Where’s the rest of the house?’ And then I realized I was already in it,” Winfrey says in the episode. She also managed to avoid mentioning the large LCD television screen on the wall of the otherwise humble home.
Many Americans had a different reaction to the episode when it aired on U.S. televisions in April. “Love Oprah’s experiences of traveling to different cultures and the respect that she shows as she learns,” one viewer commented on Oprah’s website. But with the backlash from Indian viewers, the talk-show host might not be welcomed back to India with open arms anytime soon.